The present invention relates to the automated monitoring and reporting of vehicle performance data while incorporating user preferences regarding the manner in which the data is prioritized and presented to the user. In particular, the systems and methods of the present invention combine real-time performance data gathered by a performance monitoring system for a vehicle with certain user preferences, such that each user can customize the system to report to and/or alert the user of certain types of performance data in a desired manner and/or at a desired time.
Vehicles, particularly commercial air, marine and land vehicles, typically include some type of performance monitoring system that records data regarding the vehicle performance, which includes the performance of the various components of the vehicle. The data includes a record of certain performance events that occur during the operation of the vehicle. The performance monitoring system typically conducts data collection and reports all of the data collected to the user. The user then may utilize the data in determining the type of maintenance, if any, that the vehicle may need. For example, if the data indicates that a particular component of the vehicle is malfunctioning or that the performance of one or more components may contribute to a vehicle failure in the future, then the user can perform the appropriate maintenance on the vehicle at the next opportunity.
For example, an air vehicle typically has a central maintenance computer (CMC) and/or an aircraft condition monitoring system (ACMS). The central maintenance computer collects, consolidates and reports performance data for the components of the air vehicle. Certain maintenance messages are associated with one or more types of performance data, and are stored in the CMC. Thus, when the CMC receives performance data, it analyzes the data to determine if the received data meets the criteria associated with the maintenance messages. If the received data meets the criteria, then the CMC presents the appropriate stored maintenance message to the user via a user interface. A CMC is further described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,943,919 entitled, “Central Maintenance Computer System and Fault Data Handling Method.”
Similar to the CMC, an ACMS also collects, monitors, records and reports real-time aircraft system data. For example, the data collected by the ACMS is used to perform cabin pressure and temperature monitoring, hard landing detection, flight crew monitoring, and engine monitoring in addition to many other aircraft performance functions. The reported data is then utilized to analyze aircraft performance and trends in aircraft performance, report significant flight events, and troubleshoot faults.
While the current system(s) utilized for vehicle performance monitoring provide the necessary data for a user to make an appropriate maintenance decision, it is still necessary for a user to sort through all of the data and maintenance messages to determine what type of maintenance is necessary. Thus, the user must sort and interpret the data provided by the monitoring system, such as the CMC and/or ACMS for an air vehicle, in light of the user's knowledge of the particular maintenance plan for the vehicle. For example, one user may implement a conservative maintenance plan for its vehicles, and as such, that user may carry out a certain type of maintenance the first time a particular performance event occurs during the operation of the vehicle. Another user, however, may wish to carry out a certain type of maintenance only if a particular performance event occurs more than five times during the operation of the vehicle.
With the current monitoring systems, each user will be presented with the same performance data, and the user must interpret it in light of their preferred maintenance plan, which is time consuming and dependent upon the user being familiar with the appropriate maintenance plan and any recent changes to the maintenance plan. For many types of vehicles, particularly commercial vehicles, the amount of time the vehicle is out of service is costly to the vehicle owner. As such, the longer it takes for a user to determine the type of maintenance that is necessary for a vehicle in accordance with the particular maintenance plan for the vehicle, the longer the vehicle will be out of service, which may be expensive to the vehicle owner if the vehicle would otherwise be in service.
Other monitoring systems include certain user customizable settings. For instance, some systems permit a user to specify alarm filtering and prioritization, and general alarm level triggers and thresholds. Thus, the data presented to the user will be associated with an alarm only if the data meets the criteria specified by the system. One example of such a system is disclosed in published application 2002/0163427 to Eryurek et al., which was published on Nov. 7, 2002. Further systems permit management of maintenance tasks based upon operational and scheduling preferences, such that the intervals between maintenance tasks may be increased or the tasks may be organized into groups. Examples of these systems are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,442,459 to Sinex and published application 2002/0143445 to Sinex, which published on Oct. 3, 2002. While these systems permit users to customize a performance monitoring system to some extent, they do not provide for the level of customization that is necessary to allow a user to implement a particular maintenance program based upon the user preferences. As such, although a user may be permitted to specify when and how alarms associated with the data are presented and/or when and how the user is notified of certain maintenance tasks in general, the systems do not allow a user to specify how the system interprets and presents particular type(s) of data. For example, the conventional monitoring systems would not permit a user to specify the number of times a particular performance event must occur during the operation of the vehicle before the user is notified that a particular type of maintenance is recommended.
As such, there is a need for a vehicle monitoring and reporting system that combines real-time vehicle performance data with specific user preferences for different types of data that may be potentially captured by the system, such that a user may implement a maintenance plan that fits their specific business plan for their vehicles.